GaMetal Development (Part 1): The equipment I use! (Patreon)

Good evening Patrons! So long as everything goes according to plan, in a little over 2 weeks or so I'll be moving out and will be working on music

full-time

. I can't elaborate how much this wouldn't be possible without your ongoing support. I'm eternally grateful for all of your generosity!

I'm going to start doing more posts where I talk about assorted topics starting with this one today: A lot of people ask me about what I record with, from my guitars, to my drums, to the programs I work on, so we'll start today with an in-depth look at the equipment I use, starting with the main 4 instruments:

Guitars

These are the main 4 guitars I use for recording. The first, and most popular, is the Jackson DK2M, aka the 'Bootar'. The Boo design is a decal I created using the boo artwork from Mario Pinball Land. As you can see, it's actually starting to wear off. Luckily, I have a second backup decal saved that I'll probably replace it with soon and spray it with some sort of finish so it doesn't wear off again.

This is the only guitar I've had (not counting the bass) that has a maple fretboard, which definitely does have a different feel it to it vs the rosewood fretboards all my other guitars have. The only way I can describe it is that it feels.. smoother somehow, haha. People also say it has a more mellow tone to it, and I think I can attest to that. It has the old John Petrucci pickup set: a Liquifire in the neck and a Crunch Lab in the bridge. I'm a huge fan of John Petrucci and have always loved his tone: it's like... extremely smooth distortion. It's the tone that I shoot for (the Dream Theater album Images and Words is a good example).

Behind the Bootar is the Dean Vendetta 4.0. This is a severely underappreciated guitar that you can find ultra cheap if you look around. Like seriously, for you guitar players out there, if you're looking for a solid backup or even a new guitar, look into the Vendetta 4.0 or 3.0 (the only difference is the finish). It's my only neck-through, and I actually think it feels slightly better than the DK2M. The main 'drawback', if you consider it one, is that it lacks a floating bridge so no whammy. I'm not really a huge whammy user anyways, so it doesn't bother me much, but if there's a song I think absolutely needs whammy I'll use the DK2M instead. It also has the Liquifire/Crunch Lab setup.

Behind the Vendetta is my super old Jackson RR3. I've had this guitar for almost 15 years, and at this point I've pretty much retired it. It's just starting to feel it's age, really. Unlike my recent guitars, it has EMG 81/85 pickups (a metal standard). Every GaMetal song before 2013 was recorded with this guitar, these days it makes a few sporadic appearances, most recently Koopaling Battle and Battle! Giratina.

The most major difference between my guitars is that I have them all tuned differently. Both Jacksons have Floyd Rose bridges which are a humongous hassle to tune, so having a different guitar for different tunings makes thing a lot easier. The DK2M is in standard tuning, the Vendetta 4.0 is a half-step down (flat standard), and the RR3 is a full step down (DGCFAD). If I really feel the need to go heavier, I'll tune the Vendetta to the rarely used drop C# (La Danse Macabre had this tuning) or the RR3 to drop C (used in Giratina). Recently, though, I tuned the Vendetta to drop C for Warship Noah, since like I mentioned a moment ago I've pretty much retired the RR3.

Lastly is the bass which is an SX Ursa 2. This is going to be one of the things I upgrade next. It's a decent bass, it sounds really good since I put EMG J pickups into it, but it feels so-so. I switched to a 5 string in 2013 to help pick up some low end slack that I lose from using standard/flat standard tuning. I'm considering switching back to 4 since the 5th string sounds like crap on recording but that could just be the bass itself. I have read of other people experiencing the same issue, though.

Also, the body is hard ash so it weighs 5,000 tons.

These are my 2 acoustics: the one on the left is a Dean Tradition I that I've had for an extremely long time (probably as old as the RR3). It was a rather cheap guitar, but I've played several acoustics in the thousand dollar + range that didn't feel as good as this one. Dean seems to have a knack for making great quality guitars at low prices. On the right is the Samick LC-015 G that I got for my birthday this year. I don't know how old it is (got it used) but it looks pretty old, haha. It still plays nicely and is a solid first classical guitar.

That's the difference between these 2, if you couldn't tell: the Dean is a steel string and the Samick is a nylon string. Unlike other guitar comparisons (such as the DK2M vs the Vendetta 4.0), there is an extremely noticeable sound difference between a steel string and nylon string. For comparison, check out something like the acoustic shorts Lullaby of Deserted Hell (Steel) vs Ecruteak City (Nylon). Steel has a far brighter tone while Nylon sounds a lot more mellow. I try now to use each to it's strength and break out the Nylon for acoustic songs/parts that are on the softer end, and use the Steel for the opposite, though sometimes of course it's interesting to use them the other way around. I've also noticed game music seems to favor the classical (nylon string) guitars, Dark Pit (the original) for example was recorded on a classical.

While I'm at it, and since I get a lot of 'how many guitars do you have???' comments, I suppose I can show you my other guitars that I don't use xD. On the left is my previously used bass, an Epiphone Goth Thunderbird IV, which was used on 2011 recordings starting with Sandopolis Zone onwards. It sounds great through an amp, but it sounds pretty terrible on recording and took a ton of tweaking to make it sound ok. Second in the picture is a BC Rich Mockingbird. I used to buy used guitars, fix them up and sell them, and this is the last one I bought that I never got around to selling cause I like the way it looks (it's hard to tell from the picture but it's actually blue), I might be bringing this one out in 2017 to replace the RR3 but I really haven't played it much so I'm really not sure exactly how good it feels. In the middle is an Ibanez RG3EX1 that I practiced changing pickups on and is mostly just a beater for repair experience. Fourth is a BC Rich NJ Beast that I've had almost as long as the RR3. It has an ebony fretboard that feels amazing, but the body is heavy as hell and it's really uncomfortable to play sitting down. It also needs a bridge replacement. Lastly is my oldest guitar in my possession: a Dean ML Phantom XT (Dimebag!). This was my second guitar ever, so it's like, almost 17 years old, haha. I actually fixed this one up a little bit and was going to bring it back a couple of years ago, but it's age has gotten to it and it doesn't feel very good anymore. My first guitar I no longer have, it was a generic (Austin brand) stratocaster that I gave to a friend long ago.

Also pictured is one of my dogs, but he doesn't contribute much to the recording process.

Keyboard

My current keyboard isn't all that special: this is an M-AUDIO 61ES. It is simply a midi controller and nothing more. I had this as a backup to my Korg Triton LE that I used for most things up until recently (which I'm sure you've seen before in videos, it's the far cooler looking one), but for some reason it keeps blowing out power adapters. This will suffice for now but it's something I need to replace eventually. The bad thing about keyboards is that you practically have to pay the price of a used car to get a good one, so I'll have to save up for a little bit. :P

I'll explain more about MIDI stuff probably in the next post when I break down the software I use.

Drums

I'm seen primarily as a guitar player, but I love drums! I assembled this set piece by piece throughout several years, and still have much more to do to it.

When I first started learning guitar, one of my best friends started learning drums as well. His father was a drummer and knew a guy that had a studio in Arkansas and he took us one day. This was the first time I ever saw an electronic drum set, and I had always wanted to get one of my own, but like keyboards they're pricey! Unlike keyboards, though, you can assemble and upgrade a drum set piece by piece, so that's what I did throughout the years.

Currently, the brain is a Roland TD12, the snare/tom pads are PD80/85's, the kick is a KD-120 with a Pearl P902 double bass pedal, and the cymbals are assorted CY5/7/8's and a PD8 I use as a china. The cymbals are in dire need of replacement (they mis-trigger constantly), and I also need to add a tom or 2 (currently I have a higher tom set on the rim of the first tom, which you may have noticed in videos, it kind of looks like im reaching for an imaginary tom, haha). Also, I don't use the sounds on the TD-12 and haven't since 2012, I actually use XLN Audio's Addictive Drums plugin and play it via MIDI. The sounds on the TD-12 aren't that great for metal.

There's a lot of benefits to using electronic drums vs acoustics. For me, the biggest benefit is that I can play and not disturb the entire neighborhood, which is crucial since for the past 2 years I've been living in apartments. If you've never heard a drumset in a house before, well, it's quite possibly the loudest thing on the entire planet. Electronics, while not completely silent, are way quieter.

Secondly, you can change drum sounds at will vs buying an entirely new drum/cymbal.

Thirdly, they're far easier to record with. With an acoustic kit, you need various mic's, a room that's been treated to sound right, learning how to use and adjust those mics properly, etc. It's a lot of hassle.

The main drawback, of course, is real vs simulated. An electronic kit doesn't feel exactly like an acoustic kit, and of course it won't ever sound exactly like one, you can just get as close as possible. The hardest dynamic to emulate is the cymbals, which are the first thing to sound noticeably cheap on the lower end e-drum brains. Also using a cymbal pad for the hi hat vs an actual hi hat feels very different. There are people with hybrid kits where they use electronic kick/snare/tom pads with mic'd real cymbals.

I could go on with the acoustic vs electronic comparisons but if you really want to know more you can find various debates on forums somewhere. xD

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So, those are the 'big 4' instruments that I use for recording (guitar, bass, keys, drums). In the next part, I'll talk about the software and programs I use (spoiler: Logic and plug-ins). Thanks for reading! :)

Also if you have any questions relating to equipment or anything, feel free to ask!